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Nobel Peace Prize laureates issue Open Letter calling for action on road deaths ahead of key UN debate today

20 million could die on the world's roads from 2000-2015, more than 200 million seriously injured

The United Nations must take urgent steps to address the world's growing road deaths crisis, Nobel Prize winners and leading international figures supporting the Make Roads Safe campaign warn today (31 March).

In a key debate on global road safety, the UN General Assembly will today have a chance to tackle an epidemic which already ranks with HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis as a worldwide killer.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and President Oscar Arias are leading the call for a global Ministerial Conference on road safety in an open letter submitted to the UN. Along with the letter, the Make Roads Safe campaign will deliver a petition of over 1 million signatures from people around the world to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

During the General Assembly session, the UN will hear that road deaths are now the number one killer of young people aged 10-24 worldwide. Overall, each year more than1.2 million people are killed and 50 million injured. The latest forecasts show that unless action is taken, more than twenty million lives could be lost from 2000-2015, with a doubling of the annual death rate by 2030.

The UN General Assembly will debate a new Resolution which is hoped to focus international efforts on the problem.

Lord Robertson, Chairman of the Commission for Global Road Safety, which first proposed a global Ministerial conference, will address the UN General Assembly. He said:

"Today's debate can mark the moment when the world community looks out at the suffering, the grief, and the cost of road injuries and decides to begin to end it. This is in our power to do. Collectively we have the tools, we have the knowledge, and we have the means. We must act."

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu said:

"The UN can decide today whether or not to take action - if the children, pedestrians and cyclists in developing countries, who represent the vast majority of the casualties, had the vote there would only be one outcome."

Jimmy Carter, Nobel Prize winner and former US President said: "As our world becomes increasingly mobile, it is imperative that we give more attention to the safety of our roads and methods of transportation. The Make Roads Safe campaign is an essential step towards saving the 3,000 lives that are lost daily in road accidents."

* Worldwide, a child aged under 15 is killed or seriously injured every minute of every day;

* At least ninety per cent of road deaths and injuries occur in middle and low income countries. As a global killer road deaths rank with Malaria and TB. However the issue is not widely recognised as a development concern and there is no serious high level international action to improve road safety;

* Road crashes are estimated to cost up to US$100 billion a year to middle and low income countries, or typically between 1-3% of GDP.

* The Make Roads Safe campaign argues that the international community should as a minimum, fund a 10 year, $300 million, action plan to increase road safety capacity in middle and low income countries.

* Other proposals are that 10% of road infrastructure budgets funded by international donors should be earmarked for safety and that the UN should set up a dedicated road safety agency.

Kevin Watkins, former UN Human Development Report Director, said:

"The stakes are rising by the day. Investing political capital and financial resources in safer roads today will prevent countless human tragedies, enhance public health, lift people out of poverty and boost economic growth tomorrow."

Notes

- The United Nations General Assembly session on the Global Road Safety crisis will take place at UN Headquarters New York at 10am, 31 March.

- Press briefing on global road safety, 1.15 pm UN Headquarters.

- See below for full text of the Open Letter to the UN*

- On the agenda for the UN General Assembly is a proposal for the first ever global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, a key demand of the Make Roads Safe campaign.

Open Letter to the United Nations

Every six seconds someone is killed or seriously injured on the world's roads.

Today the United Nations General Assembly has a rare opportunity to address one of the most serious and yet overlooked issues of our time, the appalling toll of death and injury in road crashes.

More than 3000 people are dying every day. Ten million people are estimated to have already lost their lives on the roads in this first decade of the 21st Century.

Ninety per cent of these casualties occur in developing countries, where measures to improve road safety are failing to keep pace with rapid motorisation. Those most affected by road crashes are the most vulnerable: the poor; the young, particularly children; pedestrians and novice drivers. Road crashes are already the leading cause of death worldwide for young people over the age of ten.

Poor road safety has a serious impact on many other areas of development. Road crashes impose a high economic cost and a serious burden on health resources. Communities can be devastated by the loss of a teacher, a leader, or a child.

The developing countries most affected desperately need home grown expertise and champions for road safety, and the domestic political commitment to fund and support road safety measures. There is much that the international community could do to foster this effort, by raising the profile of road traffic injuries, sharing knowledge of injury prevention and including road safety in their programmes to promote global development.

To catalyse this effort, and to raise political support for action on road deaths, the Make Roads Safe campaign is calling for a first ever United Nations Ministerial Conference on Global Road Safety. Today the UN General Assembly will debate this proposal.

We urge all UN member governments to support the call for a UN Conference on Global Road Safety.

Every six seconds there is another reason why we must act. The time for action is now.

Jimmy Carter, Former U.S. President; Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Oscar Arias Sánchez, President of Costa Rica; Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Sonia Gandhi, President, Indian National Congress

Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland; Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, Chairman, Commission for Global Road Safety

Norman Mineta, U.S. Secretary of Transportation 2001-2006

Max Mosley, President, Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)

Professor Claes Tingvall, Director of Traffic Safety, Swedish Road Adminstration

Peter Adamson, Senior Adviser, Unicef

Professor Susan P. Baker, Founding Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy

Linda C. Degutis, President, American Public Health Association (APHA)

Stephen Lewis, Former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS

Kevin Watkins, Former Director, UN Human Development Report

The Campaign for Global Road Safety

www.makeroadssafe.org

First UN Ministerial summit on global road safety approved

**

The United Nations General Assembly has today approved the first ever global UN Conference on road safety, in an effort to reduce the rapidly growing death toll on the world's roads.

The UN Conference, with participation at least at Ministerial level, will be held in the Russian Federation in 2009. The decision by the UN General Assembly marks a major victory for the Make Roads Safe campaign, which has advocated for such a governmental meeting.

Lord Robertson, Chairman of the Commission for Global Road Safety, which first proposed a global Ministerial conference in its Make Roads Safe report of 2006, addressed the UN General Assembly today and will be meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to discuss the global road safety crisis. He said:

"I am delighted that the UN has today recognised the scale of human suffering and economic loss caused by road traffic deaths and injuries. Now we must ensure that the UN Conference is not just another talking shop, but secures real commitments and takes real action to reverse the tide of global road deaths."

During the General Assembly session, the UN heard that road deaths are now the number one killer of young people aged 10-24 worldwide. Overall, each year more than1.2 million people are killed and 50 million injured. The latest forecasts show that unless action is taken, more than twenty million lives could be lost from 2000-2015, with a doubling of the annual death rate by 2030.

The Make Roads Safe campaign will be promoting a strong agenda for action to the UN Ministerial conference, including:

* Calling on the international community to fund, at minimum, a 10 year, $300 million, action plan to increase road safety capacity in middle and low income countries;

* To ensure that 10% of road infrastructure budgets funded by international donors should be earmarked for safety.